Mike Mayock being considered for Redskins GM job, which is news to Mayock

The Redskins, in search for a new “general manager” after firing Scot McCloughan on Thursday night, are considering NFL Network draft guru Mike Mayock as his replacement, reports Adam Schefter and Field Yates of ESPN.

NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock has emerged as a candidate to become the Washington Redskins' next general manager, according to league sources.

Washington is not likely to hire a GM until after the draft, and it has a group of candidates that is thought to include Mayock and ESPN analyst Mark Dominik, per league sources.

Mayock has been with NFL Network since 2005, carving out a Mel Kiper-like niche as a draft analyst. He’s also done color commentary for Notre Dame, Vikings preseason games, and Thursday Night Football, and currently calls Eagles preseason games. As far as media draftniks go, they don’t come much better than Mayock.

Just one problem: this is news to Mike Mayock, who says he hasn’t even been contacted.

For the Redskins, this is just another dog and pony show to distract from/replace their previous dog and pony show of former GM Scot McCloughan. Which makes it more of a Punch and Judy show. After cleaning out the Shanahans following the 2013 season, Bruce Allen was given greater power in the Redskins front office. Then in 2015, three weeks after an ESPN profile that brought him to national attention, the Redskins hired McCloughan as general manager.

The move was met with wide acclaim, and after the Redskins made the playoffs that season there was a perception that things were really changing in DC. It was a false perception.

A year after hiring McCloughan, the Redskins made a typical big money Redskins signing when they added Josh Norman. Things only got worse when Chris Cooley, long a mouthpiece for the organization and an employee of a Dan Snyder-owned radio station, accused McCloughan, who is an alcoholic, of his drinking interfering with his job. The Redskins never rebuffed the claim.

McCloughan was then kept completely out of the loop in the offseason, not involved in any of the Redskins moves from Jay Gruden’s contract extension, the decision to franchise tag Kirk Cousins, or any other player or personnel moves. Then he was fired on Thursday, after the Redskins first back-to-back winning seasons under Dan Snyder.

With nothing but bad press, the Redskins seemingly pulled a Washington move: distract from negative news with a shiny new toy, which the Redskins did by floating a well liked and respected name as a potential replacement and get people talking about it. With the position not going to be filled until the Draft, which is over six weeks away, there was no need to put out a name today. Unless it was a distracting one. And with the news of Mayock being a candidate being news to Mayock, it fell flat on its face. Nothing much has changed with the Redskins.